Adult attachment dimensions and specificity of emotional distress symptoms: prospective investigations of cognitive risk and interpersonal stress generation as mediating mechanisms

Three prospective studies examined the relation between adult attachment dimensions and symptoms of emotional distress (anxiety and depression). Across all three studies, avoidant and anxious attachment prospectively predicted depressive symptoms, and anxious attachment was associated concurrently with anxiety symptoms. Study 2 tested a cognitive risk factors mediational model, and Study 3 tested an interpersonal stress generation mediational model. Both cognitive and interpersonal mediating processes were supported. The cognitive risk factors pathway, including elevated dysfunctional attitudes and low self-esteem, specifically mediated the relation between insecure attachment and prospective elevations in depression but not anxiety. For the interpersonal stress generation model, experiencing additional interpersonal, but not achievement, stressors over time mediated the association between insecure attachment and prospective elevations in depressive and anxious symptoms. Results advance theory and empirical knowledge about why these interpersonal and cognitive mechanisms explain how insecurely attached people become depressed and anxious.     

Mediational Pathways Through Which Positive and Negative Emotionality Contribute to Anhedonic Symptoms of Depression: A Prospective Study of Adolescents

This study takes a developmental psychopathological approach to examine mechanisms through which baseline levels of positive emotionality (PE) and negative emotionality (NE) prospectively predict increases in anhedonic depressive symptoms in a community sample of 350 adolescents (6th–10th graders). Dependent stressors mediated the relationship between baseline levels of NE and anhedonic depressive symptoms after controlling for initial symptoms. Supportive relationships mediated the relationship between baseline levels of PE and anhedonic depressive symptoms, after controlling for baseline symptoms. In addition, NE X PE interacted to predict later anhedonic depressive symptoms, such that adolescents with low levels of PE and high levels of NE experienced the greatest increase in anhedonic depressive symptoms. Last, supportive relationships interacted with baseline PE to predict prospective changes in anhedonic depressive symptoms, such that adolescents with low PE and low supportive relationships experienced the greatest increase in anhedonic depressive symptoms. Results are discussed in terms of current theoretical models of the link between temperament and depression. This work was supported, in part, by NIMH grants R03-MH 066845 and 1R01HD054736-01A1 to Benjamin L. Hankin.     

Cognitive Vulnerability–Stress Model of Depression During Adolescence: Investigating Depressive Symptom Specificity in a Multi-Wave Prospective Study

Depression commonly co-occurs with anxiety and externalizing problems. Etiological factors from a central cognitive theory of depression, the Hopelessness Theory (Abramson et al. Psychological Review, 96, 358-372, 1989), were examined to evaluate whether a negative inferential style about cause, consequence, and self interacted with stressors over time to predict prospective elevations in depressive symptoms specifically compared with typically co-occurring symptoms. Negative inferential style was assessed at baseline in a sample of early and middle adolescents (N = 350, sixth to tenth graders). Measures of general depressive, anhedonic depressive, anxious arousal, general internalizing, and externalizing symptoms and occurrence of stressors were assessed at four time points over a 5-month period. Results using hierarchical linear modeling show that a negative inferential style interacted with negative events to predict prospective symptoms of general and anhedonic depression specifically but not anxious arousal, general internalizing or externalizing symptoms. Negative events predicted prospective elevations of symptoms of anxious arousal, internalizing, and externalizing problems.     

Naturalistic Partial Sleep Deprivation Leads to Greater Next-Day Anxiety: The Moderating Role of Baseline Anxiety and Depression

The detrimental effects of insufficient sleep on emotional functioning have been well established. Total sleep deprivation usually leads to increased anxiety and depressive symptoms the following day. However, no study has yet examined the relationships between unmanipulated partial sleep deprivation and next-day symptoms of anxiety and depression in everyday life, which this study sought to characterize. Participants (N = 94) completed daily diary surveys twice per day for 2 weeks without instructions to alter their sleep in any way. Nights of spontaneous, naturally occurring partial sleep deprivation were followed by increased levels of self-reported symptoms of anxious arousal the next day, but were unrelated to next-day symptoms of anhedonic depression or general distress. The relationship between partial sleep deprivation and next-day anxious arousal was found to be moderated by both baseline depressive symptoms and anxiety such that individuals reporting higher levels of depression or anxiety at baseline showed relatively greater increases in symptoms of anxiety following partial sleep deprivation. These results suggest that partial sleep deprivation occurring in everyday life can lead to higher next-day levels of anxious arousal, a relationship that is particularly deleterious for individuals with higher overall levels of anxiety or depressive symptoms.     

Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression in Canadian and Chinese Adolescents

The goal of the current study was to compare diathesis-stress and transactional models of cognitive vulnerability to depression in samples of Canadian (n = 118) and Chinese (n = 405) adolescents. We utilized a six-month multi-wave, longitudinal design in order to examine whether (a) perceived control moderated the association between the occurrence of dependent interpersonal stressors and subsequent increases in depressive symptoms (i.e., a diathesis-stress perspective) and (b) dependent interpersonal stressors mediated the association between perceived control and subsequent increases in depressive symptoms (i.e., a transactional perspective). Results from idiographic, time-lagged, hierarchical linear modeling analyses indicated that for Canadian adolescents both diathesis-stress and transactional models were significant predictors of depressive symptomology. When examining the diathesis-stress model, boys, but not girls, who reported lower perceived control, reported higher levels of depressive symptoms following the occurrence of dependent interpersonal stress. Gender differences, however, were not present in the transactional model. In contrast, transactional, but not diathesis-stress, models were significant in Chinese adolescents, and gender differences did not emerge. Overall, these results may reflect culturally-relevant differences in the etiology of depression in Canadian and Chinese adolescents.     

Relational Stressors and Depressive Symptoms in Late Adolescence: Rejection Sensitivity as a Vulnerability

The role of rejection sensitivity as a critical diathesis moderating the link between adolescent relational stressors and depressive symptoms was examined using multi-method, multi-reporter data from a diverse community sample of 173 adolescents, followed from age 16 to 18. Relational stressors examined included emotional abuse, maternal behavior undermining adolescents’ autonomy and relatedness, and lack of support from close peers. As hypothesized, multiple relational stressors were found to predict the future development of depressive symptoms, but as hypothesized predictions existed primarily for adolescents who were highly rejection sensitive. Results are discussed in terms of a diathesis-stress model of depression and suggest that though relational stressors have previously shown consistent modest links to depressive symptoms, understanding pre-existing intrapsychic vulnerabilities of the adolescent may be critical to identifying the processes by which such stressors lead to depressive symptoms.     

Conceptualizing the Prospective Relationship Between Social Support,Stress, and Depressive Symptoms Among Adolescents

The goal of the current study is to examine the relationship amongst social support, stress, and depressive symptoms within a transactional and diathesis-stress framework using a multi-wave, longitudinal design. At the initial assessment, adolescents (n = 258) completed self-report measures assessing social support (peer, classmate, parent, and total), dependent interpersonal stress, anxious symptoms, and depressive symptoms. Additionally, participants reported stress and symptomology in each of the four waves spanning six months. Results of time-lagged, idiographic, multilevel modeling indicated that stress mediated the relationship between lower parental, classmate, and total social support and subsequent depressive, but not anxious, symptoms. In contrast, lower levels of peer support were not associated with higher levels of stress and subsequent depressive symptoms. Additionally, only classmate support deficits significantly moderated the relationship between stress and depressive symptoms. Overall, the results suggest that deficits in parental and classmate support may play a greater role in contributing to adolescent depression as compared to deficits in peer support.     

Temperament,Repetitive Negative Thinking,and Depressive Symptoms in Early Adolescence: a Prospective Study

Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is a transdiagnostic vulnerability factor, involved in the maintenance of a variety of emotional problems. Recently, the Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire – Child version (PTQ-C) was developed as a content-independent measure of RNT in children and adolescents. The current study investigated the reliability and predictive validity of the PTQ-C and examined temperament as a developmental predictor of RNT. For this end, 701 early adolescents completed measures of RNT, depressive symptoms, stressors, and temperament, both at baseline and after three months. First, the factor structure of the PTQ-C was investigated by comparing a one-factor model and a three-factor higher-order model using confirmatory factor analyses. Both models showed good fit to the data, but the more parsimonious one-factor model was retained. Internal consistency, as measured by cronbach’s alpha and (hierarchical) omega, was found to be excellent for the total scale. Second, associations with depressive symptom levels were examined. RNT predicted both concurrent and prospective symptom levels, even when taking into account baseline depressive symptoms. RNT was further shown to act as a moderator strengthening the link between stress and levels of depressive symptoms, both concurrently and prospectively. Finally, associations with temperament were explored by investigating the mediating role of RNT in the association between temperament dimensions and depressive symptoms. One indirect effect was found, with low effortful control predicting increases in depressive symptoms through heightened levels of RNT. The current study supports the PTQ-C as a useful and psychometrically sound measure of dysfunctional RNT that may facilitate research on emotional problems in child and adolescent samples.     

Transactional Relationships among Cognitive Vulnerabilities, Stressors, and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescence

The transactional cognitive vulnerability to stress model Hankin & Abramson (Psychological Bulletin, 127:773–796, 2001) extends the traditional diathesis-stress model by proposing that the relationships among cognitions, depressive symptoms, and stressors are dynamic and bidirectional. In this study three different pathways among these variables were assessed simultaneously: (1) cognitive vulnerabilities and stressors as predictors of depressive symptoms (vulnerability model), (2) depressive symptoms and cognitive vulnerabilities as predictors of stressors (stress generation model), and (3) depressive symptoms and stressors as predictors of cognitive vulnerabilities (consequence model). A fully cross-lagged design panel was employed with 1,187 adolescents (545 girls and 642 boys, Mean Age?=?13.42 years) who were assessed at two time points separated by 6 months. They completed measures of cognitive vulnerabilities (maladaptive schema domains and negative inferential style), stressors, and depressive symptoms. Inferential style and schemas of the disconnection and rejection domain predicted prospective increases in depressive symptoms. Initial levels of depressive symptoms and most cognitive vulnerabilities predicted greater stress generation. Initial levels of stressors and depressive symptoms predicted an increase in negative inferential style and maladaptive schema domains over time. These bidirectional relationships were mostly similar for boys and girls, although there were a few gender differences. The findings support a transactional model with reciprocal relationships among stress, depressive symptoms, and cognitive vulnerabilities. Transactional implications for depression interventions among adolescents are discussed.     

Behavioural inhibition, anxious symptoms, and depressive symptoms: a short-term prospective examination of a diathesis-stress model

The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between behavioural inhibition (BI) and anxious symptoms within a diathesis-stress framework, using a short-term prospective design. In addition, we examined whether BI acts as a specific vulnerability to anxious symptoms, or as a common vulnerability to both anxious and depressive symptoms. At time 1, 384 children in grades 3 through 6 completed self-report measures of BI, anxious symptoms, and depressive symptoms. Six weeks later, they completed self-report measures of hassles, anxious symptoms, and depressive symptoms. Results demonstrated that children with high BI who experienced high levels of hassles during the 6-week follow-up interval showed increases in anxious symptoms, but not depressive symptoms.     

Associations of Parent–Child Anxious and Depressive Symptoms When a Caregiver Has a History of Depression

We examined the associations between parent and child anxious and depressive symptoms controlling for co-occurring symptoms in both. One hundred and four families participated, including 131 9–15 year old children considered at risk for anxiety and/or depression due to a history of depression in a parent. Parents and children completed questionnaires assessing depressive and anxious symptoms. Linear Mixed Models analyses controlling for the alternate parent and child symptoms indicated that both parent and child depressive symptoms and parent and child anxious symptoms were positively associated. Parental depressive symptoms were not positively associated with child anxious symptoms, and parental anxious symptoms were not positively associated with child depressive symptoms. The findings provide evidence for positive specific links between parent and child development of same-syndrome, but not cross-syndrome, symptoms when a caregiver has a history of depression.     

The response styles theory of depression: A test of specificity and causal mediation

This prospective study tested the diathesis-stress and causal mediation components of the response styles theory of depression. In addition, it examined whether rumination predicts increases in anxious as well as depressive symptoms. At Time 1, 87 college students completed measures of rumination, hopelessness, depressive symptoms, and anxious symptoms. Participants also completed measures of hopelessness, depressive symptoms, and anxious symptoms at three time points later in the semester: immediately after receiving their most difficult midterm exam grade (Time 2), 4–8 hours later (Time 3), and 4 days later (Time 4). Regardless of exam outcome, the tendency to ruminate in response to depressed mood was associated with: (1) increases in anxious symptoms between Time 1 and Time 3; and (2) increases in both anxious and depressive symptoms between Time 1 and Time 4. In addition, the relationship between rumination and increases in both depressive and anxious symptoms was mediated by hopelessness. In other words, individuals with a ruminative response style exhibited increases in both depressive and anxious symptoms because they exhibited increases in hopelessness.     

A Test of a Cognitive Diathesis—Stress Generation Pathway in Early Adolescent Depression

This study evaluates a pathway for depressive risk that integrates cognitive diathesis-stress and stress-generation theories, following Hankin and Abramson’s (2001, Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 31(4), 491-504) elaborated cognitive-diathesis transactional stress model. In this model, young adolescents with initial depressive symptoms were hypothesised to experience later stressors that were at least partly dependent on their behaviour. The interaction of cognitive vulnerability, a tendency to make depressogenic attributions and to ruminate, with these dependent stressors was then hypothesised to predict depressive symptoms after 6 months. This model was supported in a sample of 756 young adolescents, with cognitive style and dependent stressors partly mediating the relationship between initial and subsequent depressive symptoms. Cognitive vulnerability was also linked with an increased likelihood of dependent stressors.

A prospective test of cognitive vulnerability models of depression with adolescent girls

This study sought to provide a more rigorous prospective test of two cognitive vulnerability models of depression with longitudinal data from 496 adolescent girls. Results supported the cognitive vulnerability model in that stressors predicted future increases in depressive symptoms and onset of clinically significant major depression for individuals with a negative attributional style, but not for those with a positive attributional style, although these effects were small. This model appeared to be specific to depression, in that it did not predict future increases in bulimia nervosa or substance abuse symptoms. In contrast, results did not support the integrated cognitive vulnerability self-esteem model that asserts stressors should only predict increased depression for individuals with a confluence of negative attributional style and low self-esteem, and this model did not appear to be specific to depression.     

Feasibility and Preliminary Outcomes of a School-Based Mindfulness Intervention for Urban Youth

Youth in underserved, urban communities are at risk for a range of negative outcomes related to stress, including social-emotional difficulties, behavior problems, and poor academic performance. Mindfulness-based approaches may improve adjustment among chronically stressed and disadvantaged youth by enhancing self-regulatory capacities. This paper reports findings from a pilot randomized controlled trial assessing the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary outcomes of a school-based mindfulness and yoga intervention. Four urban public schools were randomized to an intervention or wait-list control condition (n = 97 fourth and fifth graders, 60.8% female). It was hypothesized that the 12-week intervention would reduce involuntary stress responses and improve mental health outcomes and social adjustment. Stress responses, depressive symptoms, and peer relations were assessed at baseline and post-intervention. Findings suggest the intervention was attractive to students, teachers, and school administrators and that it had a positive impact on problematic responses to stress including rumination, intrusive thoughts, and emotional arousal.     

Work Stressors,Depressive Symptoms,and Hazardous Drinking Among Navy Members Across Deployment

Few studies have attempted to examine how changes in work stressors from predeployment to postdeployment and reintegration may be associated with changes in mental health symptoms and hazardous drinking. The present study examined associations between work stressors, depressive symptoms, and hazardous drinking, and whether depressive symptoms mediated the association between work stressors and hazardous alcohol use or vice versa across deployment (predeployment, postdeployment, and 6-month reintegration). Participants were 101 U.S. Navy members (72 men; mean age = 28.34 years; SD = 5.99 years) assigned to an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer that experienced an 8-month deployment after recent wars in the Middle East. They completed measures that assessed work stressors, depressive symptoms, and alcohol use at each time point (i.e., predeployment, postdeployment, and 6-month reintegration). Using a parallel process latent growth modeling approach, we found a significant indirect effect at postdeployment such that an increase in work stressors contributed to increases in hazardous drinking via increases in depressive symptoms. Specifically, increases in work stressors significantly predicted increases in depressive symptoms, which in turn significantly predicted increases in hazardous drinking from pre- to postdeployment. Our findings garner support for affect regulation models and indicate that work stressors and changes in work stressors and depressive symptoms may be key to hazardous alcohol use among U.S. Navy members experiencing high pace of deployment. Taken together, our results help identify targets for alcohol prevention efforts among current military members.     

The association between temperament and depressive symptoms in adolescence: Brooding and reflection as potential mediators

This study examined whether rumination subtypes (brooding and reflection) mediated prospective associations between temperament (negative emotionality and positive emotionality) and depressive symptoms in a community sample of 423 adolescents. Effortful control and sex were examined as potential moderators of the mediated pathway. Youth self-reported negative emotionality (NE), positive emotionality (PE), and effortful control (EC) at age 12; brooding and reflection subtypes of rumination at age 14; and depressive symptoms at ages 12, 14, and 15. Hierarchical linear regression analyses indicated that, controlling for initial levels of depressive symptoms, high NE, but not low PE, predicted increases in depressive symptoms from age 12 to age 15. Brooding, but not reflection, mediated the association between NE and depressive symptoms. Neither sex nor EC moderated either indirect pathway in the mediated model. The results confirm and extend previous findings on the association between affective and cognitive vulnerability factors in predicting depressive symptoms in adolescence.     

Dynamic Associations between Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Adolescents’ Depressive and Externalizing Symptoms

The current prospective study investigated transactional relations between maternal depressive symptoms and children’s depressive and externalizing symptoms. Participants included 240 children (M age = 11.86 years, SD = 0.56; 53.9% female) and their mothers who were part of a 6-year longitudinal study. Measures of maternal depression (Beck Depression Inventory), child depression (Children’s Depression Inventory), and children’s externalizing symptoms (Youth Self-Report Form) were assessed annually. Data analyses using dynamic latent difference score structural equation models indicated that the observed relations between mothers’ and adolescents’ symptoms were stable across the 6 years. Higher levels of maternal depressive symptoms predicted subsequent elevations in children’s depressive symptoms and in their externalizing problems over time. Among mothers with high initial levels of depression, children’s depressive symptoms predicted subsequent declines in mothers’ depressive symptoms. Children’s externalizing problems were not related to subsequent change in maternal symptoms.     

The association between temperament and depressive symptoms in adolescence: brooding and reflection as potential mediators

This study examined whether rumination subtypes (brooding and reflection) mediated prospective associations between temperament (negative emotionality and positive emotionality) and depressive symptoms in a community sample of 423 adolescents. Effortful control and sex were examined as potential moderators of the mediated pathway. Youth self-reported negative emotionality (NE), positive emotionality (PE), and effortful control (EC) at age 12; brooding and reflection subtypes of rumination at age 14; and depressive symptoms at ages 12, 14, and 15. Hierarchical linear regression analyses indicated that, controlling for initial levels of depressive symptoms, high NE, but not low PE, predicted increases in depressive symptoms from age 12 to age 15. Brooding, but not reflection, mediated the association between NE and depressive symptoms. Neither sex nor EC moderated either indirect pathway in the mediated model. The results confirm and extend previous findings on the association between affective and cognitive vulnerability factors in predicting depressive symptoms in adolescence.     

家庭压力源影响青少年抑郁体验:冗思的中介机制

采用方便抽样法从山东某初中和某高中抽取570名学生做问卷调查,考察家庭压力源对青少年抑郁体验的影响,特别是冗思作为应对方式的中介作用。路径分析的结果显示:(1)家庭冲突和父母期望均显著正向预测抑郁体验,且家庭冲突的预测作用更强,家庭规范对抑郁体验的预测作用不显著;(2)家庭冲突和父母期望均显著正向预测青少年冗思,家庭规范对冗思的预测作用不显著;(3)冗思显著正向预测抑郁体验;(4)冗思在家庭冲突与抑郁体验之间以及父母期望与抑郁体验之间均起中介作用。总体来看,冗思是家庭压力影响青少年抑郁体验的内部机制之一。